Author's Note: Okay... so my super great idea of updating as soon as possible didn't exactly work out, but this time I'm serious in saying that the chapter after this (last one!) Will be up either tomorrow or on Sunday.

Chapter Twenty: Evil's End

Link paced the halls of the Temple of Time. "No. It's too dangerous."

"I'm coming," I repeated adamantly, as I'd been doing for a while now. I was getting frustrated. It was a hot day, and the temple was stifling. I think that was the only reason Link gave up in the end.

"Fine. You can come. But you absolutely have to stop when I tell you to, and if I tell you to run, you run and you don't wait for me, got it?"

"Yes," I huffed. He didn't smile at that like he normally would have. All the stress of constantly helping other people and risking his life and never doing anything for himself must finally have been getting to him. We crept along the ruined streets of Castle Town, careful not to let any ReDeads hear us. As we got closer to Ganondorf's castle, I noticed a shining rainbow bridge. "Ooh, pretty!"

Link still had no expression whatsoever as we entered the castle. We ran through a hallway containing two Beamos as guards. The next room was huge, with doors everywhere and a tower in the middle. We entered the tower. It seemed too easy. I guessed Link had already done something. We headed up through several stairways and rooms, including either two Dinalfos, two Stalfos, or two Iron Knuckles respectively. My feet began to ache horrendously and I wished I hadn't worn heels.

Then we reached a room which was full of pots and had a tall pillar in the middle. It was here that Link acknowledged me finally. "Wait here. Do not come up under any circumstances. No matter what you might hear." I listened curiously, and I could quite easily hear organ music floating down from the room above. Link turned as I listened and walked through another door.

Did I listen to him? Of course not. I waited patiently for several minutes, and then I followed him. There was yet another staircase. I had to rest halfway up, my feet were so sore. I was taking longer than I would have liked. By the time I reached the room that Link, Ganondorf and Zelda were in, Ganondorf was already halfway through his monologue. The strange thing was that I didn't even feel scared in the same room as him. I felt safe.

I stepped toward Ganondorf. I had no idea what I'd intended to say, but when I went to say it Ganondorf yelled, "These toys are too much for you! I command you to return them to me!" And he slammed his fist on the floor, which broke under me. I screamed as I fell. Link moved toward me, but it was far too late. I fell down, down, and hit the ground far below. I blinked hard and tried to remain conscious, but that always had been my weak point. The room around me faded.

It didn't fade into black, though. It faded into the dream I'd had over seven years ago, where I was surrounded by fire and a huge pig-like creature was advancing on me. But the small Kokiri boy I'd seen in the dream all that time ago had warped into a tall Hylian man. I braced my dream-self for whatever was going to happen. What happened was... somebody slapped my cheeks?

"Wake up, Emmeline, please wake up," Link muttered urgently.

I sat up groggily and rubbed my stinging cheeks. "Couldn't you have found a less painful way of waking me up?"

"Listen, Emmeline, the castle just collapsed. Me and the princess carried you out. But when you didn't wake up, I thought... the fall..."

I looked around me at all the rubble. "I guess it's true when people tell me I wouldn't wake up even if a building collapsed on me."

There was an ominous noise coming from the biggest pile of debris. Link automatically stepped forward to investigate, and I automatically followed Link. I squinted as the rubble began to shift. From the pile, Ganondorf rose, panting. This time alarms sounded in my head. The Triforce on the back of his hand began to glow, and he morphed into the beast of my nightmare.

"Stay back!" Link barked. I turned to run away, but a wall of fire was behind me. Everywhere I looked, there was more fire. This couldn't be happening. I ran in every direction I could think of, but there was no break in the line of flames. The beast was advancing upon me.

And suddenly, Link was there. It was almost a beautiful sight. I couldn't describe why then, and I still can't. But there he stood, holding his long, shining sword and looking as angry as I thought was possible. It was all quite peaceful until the beast knocked his sword away.

A huge battle ensued that moment. Link unsheathed another longer sword, and the monster wildly swung his two enormous scimitars. A Gerudo in true form.

Link looked like he'd known what to do all along. He strung his bow with an arrow, and aimed it at the monster's face. He let it fly, and when it made contact, the tip exploded into light, The creature was stunned. Link scampered around it and slashed at its tail. Then it would awaken, spin around, and the whole thing would start over.

It was dangerous. It was scary. I think I gnawed all my fingernails off. Every swing of the monster's swords would have me fearing for Link's life. Even worse was when he was hit. The swords were so big that they didn't even cut him, but they would knock him down and take his breath away. Not only that, but every time it happened Zelda would let out this annoying gasping scream.

That scream came again. My eyes snapped up. Link was sprawled on the ground, out cold. No. The monster stood over him, scimitars raised. That's when I snapped.

I grabbed two good-sized pieces of debris. All my Gerudo training flowed back to me. I jumped to the monster and knocked away one sword, and rolled. I jumped and whacked its face with my bigger chunk of wreckage. It shook its face, slightly stunned. I seized the opportunity to run to his back and run right up his spine to his head. I hit his large nose over and over with my 'swords,' but it wasn't doing any good. The monstrous creature just shook his head over and over again. I nearly fell off.

I did the only thing I could think of. When I was a very young child, my father had told me that if I was ever attacked by a stranger, I should gouge his eyes. So I did that.

The beast squealed and shook his sword around. I was too small to hit. Finally, in his moment of weakness, I gave him a good hit with my detritus and he keeled over. He hit the ground with a huge rumble, which woke Link up. The shock waves from his fall also blew the flames out.

"Link! The Master Sword is here! Hurry up!" Zelda screamed. Link blinked around confusedly. He stood up shakily and meandered toward the Master Sword and pulled it out of the ground. Then he turned to the beast, sword in his hands.

The beast rose again as did the flames. The beast grabbed me and tossed me over the flames. There was nothing I could do now but watch the brute and Link trade blows. I stayed silent, the sword noises punctuated only by Zelda's gasps.

Link wound up for another slash at the beast's colourful tail. This time the sword really hit home. The beast screamed and fell down, dousing the flames once more. This time Zelda raised her hands and shot a ray of magic light at the beast. Link stepped deftly forward and stabbed it between the eyes. It gave one final shuddering breath, and was dead.

We walked away until we got to Castle Town. I turned toward Link. He was tired, and sweaty, his face was covered in dirt and his hair was full of bits of the castle, but he looked happy.

He held my hands and stared into my eyes. "It's finally over," he whispered and his face came closer to mine.